Monday, March 5, 2012

Bearbearbear!

Eloise has a new best friend. It isn't her brother. He is still taken too much for granted. It isn't her Daddy, although he is definitely a close second. The new best friend is her bear.

The princess loves the bear so much that "bear" was her second word, after "Daddy" or "Dadden dadden." She says D for B most of the time, so when she talks about the bear she says, "Dare dare dare!" She also says "Boo!" as "Doh!"

When Eloise is sad, the bear cheers her up. Sometimes she will cry until she finds it. She is just too cute with this bear that is almost as big as she is.

This bear was one of mine that I acquired as a preteen, I think. I was never very attached to it, but I found it in Anni and Ryan's garage when we were there visiting. I introduced her to the bear during a diaper change by rubbing it on her face and saying, "Bearbearbear! Grrrrrr!" while I changed her to get her to stay still. She laughed and laughed and laughed.

I gave her a bottle after lunch today and propped her on the bear because I couldn't find her eating pillow. I left to get Jared cleaned up from his lunch. About thirty seconds later I heard her saying, "Dare! Dare!" She had dropped the bottle and rolled over to cuddle with/slobber on her pal.

Jared has his own special friend in the Rabbit named Bunny. He says, "Bear is Eloise's special friend. Bunny is Jared's special friend. Daddy is Mommy's special friend."

Today Eloise was playing with the bearbearbear when Jared found another, more feminine looking bear in the stuffed animal pile. He brought it to Eloise. "This is Mrs. Bear. That is Mr. Bear. Now Eloise have two bears. Mr. and Mrs. Bear." What? I know he is officially out of toddler classification and into preschooler, but who taught him to assign titles and create couples? I am still getting used to Eloise having a handful of words. Slow down!

I'm finding that Jared does like a lot of the same games that Eloise likes, but his version has to have an additional element. He loves hiding under a blanket or hiding his head under any piece of cloth, but while Eloise wants us to say, "Where's the princess?" and then "Boo!" Jared wants us to say, "Where is Jared? We must have left him at the park. We're really going to miss him around here." Then he will pop out and say, "Here I am! You didn't leave me at the park! I was under the blanket!" He gets really frustrated when Eloise's version of the game moves so much faster than his.
Eloise's hide and seek consists of a parent hiding behind a wall and popping out over and over again saying, "Boo!" Jared's hide and seek consists of him hiding in a closet and counting to five, saying "Ready or not, here I come!" and popping out to "surprise" us. An essential element of Jared's game is another person walking around looking for him.
Eloise puts things in her mouth to explore the world, or to teethe on. Jared puts things in his mouth to hear mom or dad say, "Ew! That's not food!"
Jared also likes the "Bearbearbear!" game, where the bear or bunny gets rubbed on his face, but his version must also involve tickling, or getting chased and caught first.

If it looks like all we ever do around here is play, that is pretty accurate. All laundry is folded twice, since not yet folded laundry is not as fun to fling around as recently folded laundry. I hardly ever round a corner without popping back around to say "Boo!" to Eloise. Vacuuming the house is a game. Jared asks to vacuum every day because, "That would be exciting!" Diaper changes are a spectator event. Everywhere I go in the house, I am followed by my entourage: Jared, Bunny, Eloise, and Bearbearbear, and no activity is so important that it can't be interrupted to read a story. This is our life, and I think it's a good one.